Yamiji Ouketsu
by Yemi Hikari
Summary: Gaara finds himself trapped by a 'monster' that he knows, but doesn't know.


_Disclaimer – I don't own Naruto. This one-shot was written for Wattpad's nineteenth Sci-Fi contest. The goal for this contest was to write a story with 800 words with one of five opening lines. The one choose was "his/my only chance of escape involved a small, dark tunnel guarded by..."._

 **Yamiji Ouketsu**

His only chance of escape involved a small, dark tunnel guarded by whatever experiment Orochimaru managed to create. A set of pale green eyes stared down the tunnel trying to remember why he was there, but Gaara found his head pounding as he tried thinking of a way out of this particular mess. One thin hand reached up to feel for a bump on his forehead. Such an injury indicated something, or someone managed to pierce his sand barrier, but his hands stopped before he could find anything due to the pain.

The young shinobi felt his breath leave through dry, cracked lips indicating he'd been in this part of the desert for some time. His heart couldn't stop beating as he hugged the edge of the tunnel hoping whatever was on the other side would move long enough for him to get past, but the red head also knew the experiment frightened him for some reason. Garra finally slid down, and placed his hands onto the top of his head as if he were mentally losing himself.

" _It's not as if I'm not mentally losing myself, but this is 'different' then the last time._ " The young teens eyes snapped open as a shudder ran down his spine, as his head throbbed. " _Did my head start hurting before or after I received the blow to the head. Did I even 'receive' a blow to the head?_ " Gaara instinctively pulled his knees up to his chest so he could rest his aching head on top of his knees. " _I know it's an experiment created by Orochimaru, and I know I've already encountered what ever it was. For some reason I found myself running from this experiment._ "

Thin fingers pressed into his cranium in an attempt to relieve the pain, but the wave of nausea suddenly became to unbearable. The smell of vomit to his side made the young shinobi wonder where his older siblings were, and if they would come to rescue him. " _If I ever needed rescuing, this would be the time. I don't think I could handle..._ " Gaara's mind went blank again as the smell of vomit caused his nose to wrinkle. " _What is it? What is it that I ran into, that I'm now afraid of?_ "

Another shiver ran down the teen's spine, and he pushed himself up from the ground. " _There is the chance that thing can smell my vomit, so I need to get moving._ " The young shinobi felt his vision blur slightly as he tried standing up allowing him to realize the tunnel didn't allow him to do so, but it's width was only a quarter of his height. " _You knew that though already, but for some reason forgot._ " Gaara felt his mouth open slightly like it always did when confusion hit. Uncharacteristically he licked his dry lips. " _No, not uncharacteristic. It's just been so very long._ "

Another shudder hit Gaara's spine, and he doubled over as the pain in his head worsened. He couldn't see anything in the tunnel, but he could sense something coming closer. " _It can smell the vomit like I thought._ " The boy moved farther into the tunnel rather then heading in the direction he instinctively knew escape was. Whatever guarded the other end decided to come in for him rather then waiting. A thin hand reached up to use his sand, but the pounding in his skull worsened, and a scream escaped his lips.

Gaara crumpled up into a ball, but then quickly relaxed enough to slowly pull himself away from the vomit sound towards the other end of the tunnel. The limited amount of movement caused an ache in his hands as his fingers scrapped against the rough ground. Footsteps could be heard now, or at least some kind of movement by the creature, or whatever was after him. Orichimaru's experiments did after all involve turning humans into monsters. This particular one found itself unkindly abandoned by whatever reason.

The _thing_ whatever it was got closer, and then whatever it was gripped his clothing and began to pull him towards the entrance. " _Likely to eat me. Which means..._ " Gaara pulled a kunai from a small pouch, and stabbed down onto one of the limbs attached to his clothing. Whatever was pulling him stopped, but decided to continue pulling. At first the teen tried pushing the kunai farther in, but the pain in the limb seemed to have no effect. Thus his hands went to gripping the rough sides of the tunnel causing his thin hands to become more torn up.

Soon he saw light, and blinked a couple of times to fight back the pain. The limbs let go and he rolled over. Looking up he saw the creature was a mirror of himself, but said creature wasn't himself.


End file.
